Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud recently called for the need to have an open and transparent process of recruiting law clerks in the Supreme Court.."I must tell you that my law clerks come from absolutely unconnected backgrounds from all over the country. None of them comes from a legal family and they are doing some brilliant work. So that's part of our process of opening up the Supreme Court to citizens at large and sending a message of confidence to young lawyers across the country," he said."When we recruit law clerks to assist Supreme Court judges, we are also training lawyers for the future. That is part of our obligation of giving back to the members of the bar," the CJI added..He also stressed on the importance of having law clerks from across India, and not just those who are connected or those who come with recommendations."Not just lawyers' children or lawyers' relatives, but we must have young lawyers who have no connections whatsoever," he said..The CJI was speaking at the Supreme Court Bar Association felicitation function organised for the eight newly-appointed judges of the Supreme Court..During his speech, he said that he, along with Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, chaired a committee which came out with a white paper, based on which a new scheme has been introduced for a law clerk examination which is likely to happen in early May.The idea of the examination is not to test the memorization capacity of the lawyer, because that is not relevant in a court. Rather, what is relevant is analytical skills. Thus, the examination will take place in two phases, he revealed."Multiple choice questions for 300 marks, and thereafter, we are going to give two questions for over three and a half hours. One question will be to prepare a brief from a mock judgment and then a research paper. Half an hour to read the paper and then two questions. In the two questions, the answer should not exceed 750 words each, so the idea is to test your analytical skills," the CJI added..The law clerks will be engaged purely on a short-term contractual assignment commencing from the re-opening of the Court after the summer vacation and concluding by the end of the following year's summer vacation.The term can be extended for the succeeding year, subject to the satisfaction and approval of the judge with whom the law clerk is attached or the senior-most judge of the Committee of Judges on Law Clerks.A law clerk will be paid a remuneration of ₹80,000 per month for the assignment term, and if given an extension after twelve months of the initial assignment, then a remuneration of ₹90,000.The judges of the Court will be entitled to engage four law clerks, of which two will mandatorily be through the selection process of the Registry. They will also be free to engage all four through the procedure. Moreover, subject to their workload, they can engage five law clerks..As per the scheme, a law clerk will not accept any other assignment and shall not practise as an advocate in any court of law during their assignment.Candidate studying in the fifth year of a five-year integrated law course or the third year of the three-year law course after graduation in any stream will also be eligible to apply.The candidate must not be below the age of 20 years and above 30 years as on the final date for registration, which is April 30, 2023..[Read Scheme]
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud recently called for the need to have an open and transparent process of recruiting law clerks in the Supreme Court.."I must tell you that my law clerks come from absolutely unconnected backgrounds from all over the country. None of them comes from a legal family and they are doing some brilliant work. So that's part of our process of opening up the Supreme Court to citizens at large and sending a message of confidence to young lawyers across the country," he said."When we recruit law clerks to assist Supreme Court judges, we are also training lawyers for the future. That is part of our obligation of giving back to the members of the bar," the CJI added..He also stressed on the importance of having law clerks from across India, and not just those who are connected or those who come with recommendations."Not just lawyers' children or lawyers' relatives, but we must have young lawyers who have no connections whatsoever," he said..The CJI was speaking at the Supreme Court Bar Association felicitation function organised for the eight newly-appointed judges of the Supreme Court..During his speech, he said that he, along with Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, chaired a committee which came out with a white paper, based on which a new scheme has been introduced for a law clerk examination which is likely to happen in early May.The idea of the examination is not to test the memorization capacity of the lawyer, because that is not relevant in a court. Rather, what is relevant is analytical skills. Thus, the examination will take place in two phases, he revealed."Multiple choice questions for 300 marks, and thereafter, we are going to give two questions for over three and a half hours. One question will be to prepare a brief from a mock judgment and then a research paper. Half an hour to read the paper and then two questions. In the two questions, the answer should not exceed 750 words each, so the idea is to test your analytical skills," the CJI added..The law clerks will be engaged purely on a short-term contractual assignment commencing from the re-opening of the Court after the summer vacation and concluding by the end of the following year's summer vacation.The term can be extended for the succeeding year, subject to the satisfaction and approval of the judge with whom the law clerk is attached or the senior-most judge of the Committee of Judges on Law Clerks.A law clerk will be paid a remuneration of ₹80,000 per month for the assignment term, and if given an extension after twelve months of the initial assignment, then a remuneration of ₹90,000.The judges of the Court will be entitled to engage four law clerks, of which two will mandatorily be through the selection process of the Registry. They will also be free to engage all four through the procedure. Moreover, subject to their workload, they can engage five law clerks..As per the scheme, a law clerk will not accept any other assignment and shall not practise as an advocate in any court of law during their assignment.Candidate studying in the fifth year of a five-year integrated law course or the third year of the three-year law course after graduation in any stream will also be eligible to apply.The candidate must not be below the age of 20 years and above 30 years as on the final date for registration, which is April 30, 2023..[Read Scheme]
